My first restoration project

All this lutherism has inspired me to tell you about my own attempt at a modest restoration project.

The Respectable Gentleman was exploring his "collated" items (that's another story!) and found an old small guitar from circa 1979 that he'd forgotten about.  As usual he refused to throw it away, but did agree to let me have it.  Anything to reduce the clutter.

It's a Kapok (I think), 'Guitar' model, according to the label inside.  About 29" from top to bottom (hope you're impressed with the technical terms).  It's size is; 'small'.  Still with original vintage steel strings protected by a layer of dust and stickiness.  It sounded surprisingly good.

So, how do you go about restoring an antique like this?  I decided to start with the strings, upon removal of which, the nut fell off. 

I gave the whole thing a thorough clean with a damp cloth.  I vacuumed the inside using a thin attachment on my circa 1956 Electrolux horizontal vacuum cleaner with rubber-mounted engine and cloth bag.  I then fitted the nut, using Loctite Superglue Gel, and held it in position using atmospheric pressure.  I was hesitant to replace the steel strings, as the whole thing looked ready to fall apart, so for safety I opted for a brand new set of D'Addario nylon ones (I forget the exact type).

And here's the result.  A guitar that used to sound quite good for its size, considering, and now sounds really awful.

PS I've lost the photo of it with the new strings on.